Tuesday, January 26, 2010

As I was researching the side effects of artificial sweeteners, I came across a great video that thoroughly explains how acidic the Western American diet is. I’m sure it is no secrete but I didn’t know much about it until now. Artificial sweeteners tie into this because they are highly acidic. When the body’s pH levels are out of wack, it has to pull nutrients from other sources to balance it out. According to the video, the thyroid thrives off of iodine. Well, if the body has to pull this nutrient from the body to balance it then the thyroid isn’t going to work properly which in turn could cause weight gain. It’s very interesting. Nutrients are also stripped from bone and could cause the bone to weaken and develop osteoporosis. I’m sure there are a million other side effects of high acid levels in the body. With all this new and exciting information, I have started seeing various food items in a whole new light. Every time I see someone use an artificial sweetener in his or her coffee, I just want to cringe. As bad as I want to say something, I feel it is not my place. Every time I even think of pre-packaged foods like cereals and chips, my mind interprets them as poison. Doing my P90X workouts has also contributed to this new mind set. Now don’t get me wrong, and this is where a lot of people make assumptions, I’ll take a pinch of this or that to indulge but for the most part, it’s hard for me to even reach for the stuff. It has taken many years to get to this point and it will take more time to fully get on a clean, poisonless food plan. I have been coffee free for a week now and can’t say that I miss it. Coffee is also acidic. I had some peppermint tea this weekend, which was really good as it soothed my semi sore throat. That was pretty rare, as I usually don’t care for hot tea. Now people might think that I’m crazy but who cares? Many people are naïve to the fact that there are poisons in our food. I used to be one of them. I think what really made me turn my thinking around is this scenario. If a person’s body was at a perfect pH level and was untouched with any foods or ailments then they would be the healthiest anyone could possibly be. Yeah, there are other factors like genes and other outside things that could affect the body but even a lot of these things would be warded off because the immune system would be a killer. Now, there is a perfect human specimen, untouched and in perfect health. When he or she begins to eat food, the body now has to work to digest that food and take in its nutrients. If those foods are highly acidic then the body has to pull from other sources just to balance the pH level. So now we have a weaker body. One can see what happens when people continue to fill their bodies with poisons over time as people continue to get sicker and sicker. It is sad to me and I’m sad to have seen myself in that predicament when I look at old photos. I think the world could be a much happier place with healthy people. The mood would be entirely different. All I can do is continue to work on myself and maybe help some people along the way. Every little bit helps.